Part 82: Challenges G

Are you guys ready for another round of challenges? This round has the worst challenges by far, so let's just get this over with.



The configuration is exactly the same as before. The only difference is changing Glide LV4 into Glide LV5.



These "Don't get hit" missions is somehow even more uninteresting than the timed ones.



At least some of those requires special techniques to make it faster. These ones just requires us to be careful. That applies especially to this challenge since we can't get hit at all.



This challenge is a good example of one requiring a special strategy. We need to freeze the Scorching Sphere to make it on time.



However, we can't actually freeze it while it's spinning. Blizzara stops it from spinning, but because it's frozen while spinning, it's still invincible.



So what we want to do is to freeze it after we stop it from spinning. Yes, this is very luck based.



The time limit here is 45 seconds. I probably could've done better if I used Extreme and Limit.



Last challenge's time limit was too tight. This one's too lenient.



Just imagine me doing this plenty of times. The important thing to do is to clear out Bizzare Room so we don't have any trouble examining the potions later. Nomally, I would've switch to Gitaroo Man, but there's PLENTY of time for that later this update.



Oh, the time limit. It's 5:00. I'm not kidding when I said this one's too lenient. Or maybe Aeroga is too good against Sapphire Elegies.



But not here, though. This challenge is over pretty quickly.



Just ignore the Phantomtail and don't forget to grab the 5 emblems right on top of each other.



1:10. It probably would be faster if I don't grab the rightmost sigil (I got an extra 1 here), but it all works out in the end.



Our next one is...well...



It needs as many Thundaga casts as we can, so I craft 2 more. In total, we have a maximum of 13 Thundaga LV 5.



The time limit here is VERY tight, even worse than the Scorching Sphere one. We pretty much need to Thundaga spam, since the Windstorms are weak to it.



This challenge is also luck-based since we NEED them to be jolted to have a chance at making it in time. I still don't know what magic level does, but I made the Thundagas LV 5 because it may have a bigger chance of jolting them.



1:00. I barely made it, even after changing to Phantom Gear++ for increased Magic and using an Elixir to replenish the Thundagas. This one is very unforgiving.



This one is significantly harder than most of its kind, since there's 3 of them.



The tactic is the same: Thundaga spam.



We can get hit 5 times here. In the end, I still have to actually use an Elixir.

Yes, I used 2 Elixirs, breaking RPG tradition. It's not like we can't make more of them.



Ah, here we are, at one of THE challenge. This one requires practice, but with the magic of savestates they're a lot easier.

I'm sure you guys are already very familiar with the 6 giant Heartless, so I'm not going to talk about them anymore.



Instead, I'm going to talk about this one. This is Stage 8, so no skipping here.



So what happened since last time? Well, Miranda (the useless old man) told us to go defeat the commander. Which is our opponent this time.



He's...eccentric, shall we say. This is the first time we actually see him, if you're wondering.



We're actually getting to charge up in the beginning this time.



Looks like we managed to catch him unprepared, since he take a long-ass time to charge.



In fact, he took so long that we just slip in an attack phase in the middle of the charge phase.



Not that he seems to care about it.



Have I mentioned that this guy is weird? This guy is weird.



Apparently this whole time he's preparing a light platform. He sure has his priorities straight.



The next thing he does is create a choir group. It make the music sound more dramatic, so I can't fault him for that.



See this shot here? In the PS2 version, this causes his face to vanish. As you can see here, that was fixed for the PSP version.

The thing he says here are basically etched to every player's mind. That and the quote he says if we lose (which isn't in the video).



Remember what I said last time? About the next stage being the hardest on Master Mode in the PSP version? Now you can see why.

By the way, this part is a guard phase in versus mode. Stage 7 and 8 are the only ones with exclusive parts in versus mode if we're playing them solo.



Oh look, we're done with the mission already. We can get hit 5 times here. The only dangerous bosses here are Powered Armor and Orcus. Do them first if you're doing them without savestates (you masochist).



And our next mission seems not that painful, really. I do have a bad feeling about this, though



Right. Let's not talk about that.

Now that we're going into the actual battle phase, the angels from the relief comes out.



Remember what I said a few lines ago about this being the hardest stage on Master Mode PSP? Well, if the battle phase starts with these notes, then you got the harder variation.



Apparently all those preparation times haven't been for nothing, because the angels and organs can move on their own. What's this guy's weapon again? (Spoiler: It's the whole cathedral.)



So...yeah. As mentioned in the LP of this game: The variation in this stage instills fear. This one is MUCH harder than the other.



The guard phase is no slouch either. I don't think this is possible with one hand.



Once there's this pan shot, we move on to the second part of the battle phase. I honestly think it's impossible to loop in this stage. You'd lose before that happen.



The rest of the battle phase is relatively easier. Relatively.

On another note, apparently Gregorio also has the ability to teleport.



Here's a tip for those playing: Button mash for attack phase. You're not penalized for doing those, but it kinda reduces the fun.

This stage really likes its string of one-beat notes (shown here), so just get into the rhythm and you'll be fine. For a while.



For the defense phases, I like to use my right hand for X and O while using my left hand for the rest. And using one finger dedicated for each button.

I'm pretty sure this is necessary, at least for this variation.



On the foreground, there's the string of one-beat notes again. On the background, there's Gregorio jumping. Have I mentioned he's eccentric?



You know we're entering the third and final part once Gregorio's back on the light floor. Which apparently doubles as an elevator.

And no, he doesn't teleport this time. We actually see him walking here.



This is the final hard part of the level. The rest after it is smooth sailing. Well, relatively speaking, anyway.



Now that we're relatively safe here, let's check back to the challenge, shall we?



Well, we defeated every single giant Heartless, Scarlet Tangos, Storm Bombs, and the Tricky Monkey. And we still got only 2 sigils.

You know what that means: It's Dustflier time!



The final phase here is exactly the same as normal mode, so it's pathetically easy compared to the rest of this stage.

In PS2 Stage 7 was harder, but it's nerfed for the PSP version while this stage isn't.



Looks like Gregorio got a seizure. Not surprising, considering the amount of flashing light from U-1's gitaroo.







Hearing it here is very satisfying.



I swear there's a C rank, but I honestly can't get them even if I tried. It's easier to lose than get C rank.

There's also an S rank, but same deal there for different reasons.



Now that we're done with that, how's Dustflier going?



Fuck.

Well, I was planning on skipping the next stage, but I guess I have the time to go over that. It's not like Dustflier is going to get any more interesting.





And that's why I prefer Overpass over The Legendary Theme. I wish it can be fully playable somewhere, like in the Versus Mode.

But alas, the song exists only to be overshadowed by The Legendary Theme.



Looks like we finally completed the challenge. It's pretty much impossible to complete them without beating Dustflier. We need 800 Hearts while at most we can get 750 from other Heartless.

At least it gives a whopping 255 Hearts, so we don't have to care about chaining. And at least we get to keep all those Hearts. That's something, right?



Why don't we go over the rest of the challenges? Most of them are pretty short.



This one requires strong magic to heat the Heartless' weaknesses. So it's back to Phantom Gear++.



3:00. I spent another Elixir here because I'm too lazy to make new Aerogas and rearrange the panels.



I'm not going to bother showing this one.



We can get hit 10 times. I somehow managed to do this without savestates.

That said, I'm not going to post another video since it's pretty much just the previous video but slower and longer.



I'm saving this one for next time because I'm going with the pattern here.



This challenge. It's a joke, really.



We can get hit 48 times. We'd die before that actually happens.



That said, the mission itself is still annoying. Remember when I said Xion will try to heal when hitting some HP threshold? Well, it tries to heal every time that happens, not just the first.

So that means the above case (it heals while we're being chased by Ragnarok) can happen repeatedly, trapping us in an endless loop. Apparently someone in Square Enix thought this is a good idea.



Again, I won't post the video for this one since there's nothing new here.



I didn't even bother using savestates here.



Yeah, I'll do that next time.



Same with this one.



So here's our last mission of the round. You don't see it, but Xion and Dustflier took a very long time.



Press attack one at a time and do not continue a combo. We can't miss even once here.



This is the only "Don't miss" challenge that allows attack magic, so that's nice.



And with that, we're done for the round.



We now only have 10 challenges left.



The last 4 items are our reward this time. They're nice, I guess.

New reports:


Looks like we found who wrote these descriptions. This explains why it doesn't like Puma's cuteness.